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Friday, July 29, 2011

Going organic?

Recently I've been reading about organic produce and its health benefits... well I guess really the health dangers of eating inorganic. I've thought about buying organic produce in the past, but I have ended up at the conclusion "Well, if I'm eating fruits and veggies at all I'm doing well. Inorganic produce is better than no produce, right?"

The problem is that organic is so much more expensive! But this is especially a concern to me as we think about getting pregnant in the future. I don't want to be exposing my children to poison that can do them harm, especially as their little lives are just forming!

Have you ever heard of the dirty dozen and clean fifteen? This is a list of the 12 fruits and veggies that are most likely to contain pesticides (which is poison), and the 15 that are most safe to eat inorganic. I've printed out this list and am going to stick it on our fridge. My plan is to refer to it as I make my grocery list each week.

Dirty Dozen (buy these organic):

Apples

Celery

Strawberries

Peaches

Spinach

Nectarines

Grapes

Sweet Bell Peppers

Potatoes

Blueberries

Lettuce

Kale/Collard Greens

Clean Fifteen (lowest in pesticides):

Onions

Corn

Pineapples

Avocado

Asparagus

Sweet Peas

Mangoes

Eggplant

Cantaloupe

Kiwi

Cabbage

Watermelon

Sweet Potatoes

Grapefruit

Mushrooms

It's my new goal to buy the worst offenders organic instead. I know it's going to be more costly, but it's for our health and the health of our family! It's easier and cheaper than going all organic - which I'm not sure is necessary.

By the way, our Farm Fresh To You delivery was on our doorstep before we left for work this morning. I have to say, it wasn't much food for $25... looks yummy though! But it's organic so I have to get used to this idea.

4 comments:

Good for you! It's hard to find organic produce in my area (ND) but I try to buy as much as I can. It's not necessarily healthier, I just feel better knowing my food isn't full of artificial crap and chemicals.

A family friend of ours is an organic farmer. He switched to organic because his distributor (the place that buys all his food and resells it to grocery stores) demanded it.

He hates it.

He says because they can not use chemical pestisides and washers and wax on the produce, that is is actually dirtier than non-organic. So be sure to clean it well!

Also, he said bugs get to it more, so he told us to always cut up our organics, never to just bite into them whole, because he said that organic fruits and veggies are more likely to contain insects and insect larvae.

It is so expensive, but I know it's worth it. I just started bying produce that is organic and that's all I'll buy. I just don't have it in our budget to buy everything but I think produce is more important than other items because we eat more of them! I need to write this list down because it's good to know!